Episode 561: 1 Corinthians 7 Part 3 Jesus Is the Focal Point

Episode 561: 1 Corinthians 7 Part 3 Jesus Is the Focal Point

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, people who have said “yes!” to Jesus and are filled with his Spirit and yet cannot curb their sexual appetite. He told them to get a spouse if they can’t stop having sex with one another. But he tells them it would be better for them to be like him—single because they could focus all their attention on Jesus and serving him. If they were to marry, they would have to divide their attention between their spouse and Jesus, but if they don’t marry and continue to sin by having sex with one another without being married, then they are sinning and that separates them from God. What’s missing from this equation? The Holy Spirit who produces fruit in us and that fruit includes self-control.

Episode 560: 1 Corinthians 7 Part 2 You Are Bought With A High Price

I did a Google search on the cost of Herd’s Temple which is the Temple Jesus and the disciples, even Paul and his coworkers, are familiar with, and money wise, the estimation was over $300 billion. Yes, that is Billion with a “B”! It all came tumbling down when the Romans destroyed it in AD70! It’s literally laying around the foundation of the Temple in a pile of rubble! Jesus said, “Destroy this Temple and I will rebuild it in three days,” talking about himself. How valuable is Jesus? He is priceless! You can’t put a value on God coming down to earth and living as a man, laying down his life voluntarily to become the sacrifice that washes away sin! And not only that, he chooses to live inside his people through the Holy Spirit! So why would we choose to carry that priceless person with us into sin? That is Paul’s message to the church at Corinth. Quit the sin people and focus on serving God to the best of your ability!

Episode 559: 1 Corinthians 7 Part 1 Get You A Spouse!

Paul has chased a rabbit in the previous chapter when he confronted the man having sex with his stepmom but in chapter 7 he comes back to the questions the church has asked him in a letter. That question must have asked something about all the sexual sin that is happening in the church in Corinth. Paul says, “It’s not good for a man to touch a woman, but since yall have such a sexual desire for one another, get a wife! Get a husband! Because it is better to marry than to burn with lust. Why? Because Jesus says, “If you look at a woman with lust, you are sinning!” Our culture isn’t any different than the culture in Corinth when Paul started the church there. Same problems! Same solutions!

Episode 558: 1 Corinthians 6 Part 2 Died Or Dying To Sin

One of the issues with the church at Corinth is they do not realize who they are in Christ. They have forgotten the old, sinful man was dead and they are allowing sin to be in the church. Paul keeps naming some of the sin they are contending with and in this particular instance, they are boasting about a sexual sin that is happening within the church between a man, his wife, and his son. It’s not just a one time thing, but a many time thing! Paul reminds them they are the Temple of the living God, that He dwells inside them through the Holy Spirit! How can they continue to live in sin when they should be led by the Spirit of God who they carry into their sin?!?!? They died to sin when they came to Christ and they should continue to die to sin on a daily basis but they are choosing to sin and boast about it!

Episode 557: 1 Corinthians 6 Part 1 You Belong to Christ...Act Like It!

The church at Corinth had many issues and the one Paul has been discussing in chapter 5 and now in chapter 6 is sexual immorality, in particular, a man was sleeping with his dad’s wife better known as his stepmom. At the beginning of chapter 6, Paul discusses the church taking one another to court and suing one another which makes me think the dad has taken his son to court in order to get him separated from his wife. They way this chapter reads is many of the believers at Corinth were taking one another to court and Paul’s response to them is, “What are you doing? You should be ashamed taking the stuff you can handle yourselves in a court where unbelievers will be making the decisions.” In other words, “You belong to Christ so what are you doing?”